Sailing Outrigger Canoe (DK Touring)

[WilliamPrince]

Hello all! I am currently building a DK touring canoe from the free plans provided (which are fantastic by the way). I am going to be outfitting it for a relatively long open sea journey (about 100 miles, across the Sea of Cortez.) This may seem like a somewhat dangerous and foolish journey, but the weather will be extremely calm, with winds no more than 10 knots at a time.



The build is coming along nicely, but there are some aspects that I have not yet figured out. The two parts on the top of the mind are:

The connection, support and placement of a mast, as well as the placement of guylines.

And

The connection of leeboard(s) in order to make sailing possible.

I have many other things to figure out, such as the rudder, the connection to the ama, and a few others, but all thoughts and input are greatly appreciated! I will update with progress when there is some.

P.s. I plan to be finished in 2 weeks.

[LesForgue]

Greetings William.

Sounds like a great trip.

Are you going to wait until summer to set sail? Or is it already summer in that location?
Asking because of this which I quote from a website http://www.mstarunderway.com/mexico.php ... ove_in_sea

There is a boating magazine that shows pictures of the Sea of Cortez and has captions that say "calm as usual in the Sea of Cortez". There are times of the year when this is true but winter is not one of them. In mid-November, the wind starts to blow from the north. In the Bahia de Los Angles area, the wind blows 20 to 30 knots most of the time. By that I mean day and night for weeks at a time. Even down as far as San Carlos and Santa Rosalia, it blows 20 plus most of the time. We spent one winter in the middle Sea of Cortez. We were at Bahia Concepcion for three weeks or so and the wind would blow so hard at night that it would pick the dinghy up and throw it against the side of the boat.

[WilliamPrince]

Well, I am planning to go at the beginning of December, although I will wait for a patch of weather sometime in December that fits my needs well. As for the northers, I hear from locals that they decrease in strength farther south in the sea, so maybe I will be okay (I am going from La Paz to Mazatlan.

Anyways, I have a small problem which I want to ask about before I glue anything. My hull is a tiny bit off center (about 1.5 cm at the most) meaning, the hull extends more to the left side of the centerline than the right side by that much, near the inside bulkheads. Is this a serious problem? I don't see much way to fix it... Advice appreciated.

As for everything else, well it is pretty much square and correct! I can hardly believe it but the measuring tape does not lie. Well, when I figure out this, I will epoxy the insides of the joints, and, if I have enough fiberglass, the outsides as well. If I don't have enough for the outside, I will go ahead and buy the large fiberglass tape, and just do that. I will do the large fiberglassing regardless of whether or not I have enough of the 6inch roll.

What do you think I should do to the inside, in terms of waterproofing? Should I put fiberglass sheeting all over the inside, like I will the outside? Well, my other option is just to coat everythig with epoxy... What do you guys think?

[tx river rat]

glass inside and out .
Ron

[TomC]

William,

Welcome to the forum.

What a great adventure.

How much sail area are you anticipating?

[Mick]

G'day William and welcome aboard mate.

Nice job on the build mate.

Re location of your mast/leeboard, my understanding is that the leeboard needs to be placed directly beneath the centre of effort of your sail.

Morten Olsen, the designer of this canoe, has extensive experience in designing fine sailing boats and his website is part of this one. I would ask the questions on his forum and I am sure he will be along shortly to offer advice and wisdom.

100 miles in open water is a very long way in a canoe but the Polynesians (the original inventors of the proa or outrigger sailing canoe crossed the Pacific Ocean in them.

[TomC]

G'Day Mick,

I searched above Morten Olsen in all three search catagories and then I Googled Morten Olsen boat forum and got nothing.

How can I access what you speak of in your last post.

Thank you,

[jem]

He shares a section of this forum:

viewforum.php?f=4

[TomC]

Thank you -Matt Designer

I looked on the forum link you provided... which "section" are you referring too?

There is no user name Morten Olsen listed on any of the threads.

I checked the first thread, "Introduction" and couldn't see any way forward...

Am I really stunned or is this a wild goose chase?

Cheers,

[OnkaBob]

There is no user name Morten Olsen listed on any of the threads.

Morten's user name is Boatplans.dk

If you look at the end of one of his posts you will see his name in the signature at the end.